This month's Case-Shiller index is out and, rather than paraphrase or plagiarize Phil Izzo's succinct account on the Wall Street Journal blog, Real Time Economics, how about we reproduce it? "S&P/Case-Shiller home-price data showed…

Economist Karl Case co-developed the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, today the most widely watched source of housing market prices in the U.S. Here, in a PBS NewsHour online exclusive, is his summation of the housing crisis -- in verse form.

By Carolyn O'Hara